Beethovens most popular symphony plus West Australian Symphony Orchestras blazing horns If Haydn was acclaimed as "the father of the symphony", it is surely his most illustrious student, Beethoven, who thrust the symphony into the popular consciousness. The famous opening four notes of Beethovens Fifth launches an epic symphonic journey from tension to exuberant triumph. Schumann composed his Konzertstuck in 1849, one of the most blazingly creative and happy years of his life, and a sense of joyous euphoria infuses this super virtuosic showpiece.